Needles brings boost to UF women's hoops

Published: Thursday, November 22, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, November 23, 2012 at 1:16 a.m.

When Carlie Needles went down with a torn ACL in a late preseason scrimmage last year, it was the biggest challenge she has ever faced in her basketball career.

Her response to adversity was the type coaches dream about.

“When injuries occur, you hope that whoever the young lady is, she’s going to be able to use that, and I think Carlie has taken full advantage of the year that she had to sit and wait,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “She was already a kid whose fire burned pretty bright, and it was almost like pouring a bunch of gasoline on that passion that was already inside of her.”

“The last injury I had was when I broke my hand my junior year of high school,” Needles said. “It was like a six-week recovery; nothing crazy. My knee was the biggest setback I’ve ever had to deal with since I started playing basketball. It was tough, but there’s worse things that can happen. I’m just really happy to be back.”

Needles, a 5-foot-6 redshirt freshman, has bounced back in impressive fashion, highlighted by hitting a school record nine 3-pointers on 9-of-17 shooting to account for all of her career-high 27 points in UF’s 74-44 home victory over North Florida this past Monday.

Needles’ mark broke the existing record of eight treys set by former great Bridget Pettis in 1993.

“I’m really excited to be able to come back and play,” Needles said. “This is such an exciting team to play with. We’re all really young and new, but we all have different parts to our game that we’re going to bring this year. I’m just so happy to be a part of it and so blessed to be back.”

Needles, who hails from Highlands Ranch, Col., and is the first UF player in history from that state, was a four-year starter at Thunder Ridge High School who led her team to a pair of state final fours and finished as the school’s second-leading all-time scorer behind former Duke standout Abby Waner.

While Needles has always been an adept shooter – she once narrowly lost a 3-point shooting contest to current NBA standout Carmelo Anthony — offense is not her focus.

“The biggest thing I think I bring to the team is that I am really aggressive and energetic,” she said. “Defense is my thing — I really like defense. Hopefully my energy will just carry over to my teammates.”

She is also the ultimate team player.

“Wherever I fit best, I’m OK with doing that,” Needles said. “I’m just trying to do things to the best of my ability, so wherever I’m most beneficial for the team is what I’m going to do. I’m all in — that’s our theme this year.”

Those are sweet words to Butler’s ears.

“Carlie is doing great,” she said. “I compare her to Jaterra (Bonds, UF’s starting point guard) in the way that she leads and the way she is so aggressive and controls the floor. She is not hesitant in the least to address a teammate in a positive way as well as times when it has to be in an enforcing way. She’s totally healthy and certainly better than ever, we’d like to think, physically.”

Despite their youth, Needles thinks the Gators (3-1), who play a trio of games at the South Point Thanksgiving Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev., this weekend, have a lot of positives.

“We’re very versatile,” she said. “We’ve got length, we’ve got strength and a lot of different things that go into our game. We just have to execute and emphasize our strengths against our opponents.

“We’ll surprise some people this year. We may be young, but we’re not going to use that as an excuse.”

<p>When Carlie Needles went down with a torn ACL in a late preseason scrimmage last year, it was the biggest challenge she has ever faced in her basketball career.</p><p>Her response to adversity was the type coaches dream about.</p><p>“When injuries occur, you hope that whoever the young lady is, she's going to be able to use that, and I think Carlie has taken full advantage of the year that she had to sit and wait,” UF head coach Amanda Butler said. “She was already a kid whose fire burned pretty bright, and it was almost like pouring a bunch of gasoline on that passion that was already inside of her.”</p><p>“The last injury I had was when I broke my hand my junior year of high school,” Needles said. “It was like a six-week recovery; nothing crazy. My knee was the biggest setback I've ever had to deal with since I started playing basketball. It was tough, but there's worse things that can happen. I'm just really happy to be back.”</p><p>Needles, a 5-foot-6 redshirt freshman, has bounced back in impressive fashion, highlighted by hitting a school record nine 3-pointers on 9-of-17 shooting to account for all of her career-high 27 points in UF's 74-44 home victory over North Florida this past Monday.</p><p>Needles' mark broke the existing record of eight treys set by former great Bridget Pettis in 1993.</p><p>“I'm really excited to be able to come back and play,” Needles said. “This is such an exciting team to play with. We're all really young and new, but we all have different parts to our game that we're going to bring this year. I'm just so happy to be a part of it and so blessed to be back.”</p><p>Needles, who hails from Highlands Ranch, Col., and is the first UF player in history from that state, was a four-year starter at Thunder Ridge High School who led her team to a pair of state final fours and finished as the school's second-leading all-time scorer behind former Duke standout Abby Waner.</p><p>While Needles has always been an adept shooter – she once narrowly lost a 3-point shooting contest to current NBA standout Carmelo Anthony — offense is not her focus.</p><p>“The biggest thing I think I bring to the team is that I am really aggressive and energetic,” she said. “Defense is my thing — I really like defense. Hopefully my energy will just carry over to my teammates.”</p><p>She is also the ultimate team player.</p><p>“Wherever I fit best, I'm OK with doing that,” Needles said. “I'm just trying to do things to the best of my ability, so wherever I'm most beneficial for the team is what I'm going to do. I'm all in — that's our theme this year.”</p><p>Those are sweet words to Butler's ears.</p><p>“Carlie is doing great,” she said. “I compare her to Jaterra (Bonds, UF's starting point guard) in the way that she leads and the way she is so aggressive and controls the floor. She is not hesitant in the least to address a teammate in a positive way as well as times when it has to be in an enforcing way. She's totally healthy and certainly better than ever, we'd like to think, physically.”</p><p>Despite their youth, Needles thinks the Gators (3-1), who play a trio of games at the South Point Thanksgiving Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev., this weekend, have a lot of positives.</p><p>“We're very versatile,” she said. “We've got length, we've got strength and a lot of different things that go into our game. We just have to execute and emphasize our strengths against our opponents.</p><p>“We'll surprise some people this year. We may be young, but we're not going to use that as an excuse.”</p>